Tag Archive: corporate

Despite what everyone seems to be saying, lack of ‘resources’ is almost never the actual constraint.

Your real constraints are:

Lack of Creativity

Lack of Imagination

Blind Acceptance of Inefficient Processes

Lack of Focus

Poor Planning

Lack of Direction

Lack of the RIGHT People

…and the list goes on.

The truth is, ‘Lack of Resources’ is an excuse. It is a rug under which we sweep the dirt of inefficiencies, incompetencies, and poor processes. Heck, I’d even go so far as to say that we use the excuse of ‘Lack of Resources’ to foster, support, and encourage our bad habits.

Sure, getting more people is easy, but doing the right thing (and attacking the items in my list above) has the higher payoff in the long run.

Yes, my friends, we’ve hit the end of an era. I’ve found an area where I’d like to devote a little more focus, so, as my time is not unlimited, I’m going to have to back down from my current post-a-day pattern.

Rest assured I’ll still be posting as I come across interesting things, but I just can’t keep the same regularity and pursue my other passions.

Thanks for all of the continued support with my wacky endeavors, and I’ll be sure to keep you in the loop with all of my future adventures (I’ll also be opening up a support group for those of you who may begin to suffer from withdrawals)!

Why do companies (in an attempt to stand out or be different) intentionally misspell their names?

(Heck, I intentionally didn’t get a Twitter account because “@CorporateAvenger” is one letter too long, and I couldn’t bring myself to settle with “@CorporateAvengr”.)

Today’s example is a company named “Bed Gard“…That’s right…”Bed Gard” (I’m even getting red squiggles as I type this…which is driving me CRAZY). The actual definition for “Gard” is: “a département located in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. It is named after the river Gardon (or Gard)”…nothing even close to the definition of “guard”.

Here’s why I hate this practice:

It makes you and your company look dumb

It makes you and your company hard to find (Google offered to correct my spelling to “Bed Guard”, which changes your results from Pick-up truck bed liners to toddler bed guards…)

If I was, in fact, looking for a bed guard for my truck, I would have to accidentally misspell my search to arrive at the page for this product…This is not how you make sales!!!

(Also, as a side note, with smart phones on the rise the use of numericals or special characters will also cut down on your profits, as these require more effort on the part of the ‘searcher’ to arrive at your website or to search for your company on the web.)

It’s great in concept: with minimal capitol equipment you can facilitate the most people washing their hands at any given time.

The issue with this sink is its real-life use: Men don’t like to be awkwardly bent over and shoulder to shoulder with other men washing their hands after they’ve used the restroom (I can’t speak for women, but I assume that this is also the case for you unless you are best friends or unless one of you has recently lent the other some eyeliner, etc).

With this knowledge in hand (and, as I can verify from all of my previous experience with these sinks), we can now see that there is typically only one person using this sink at any given time; which means that, during each use, 75% of the water being sprayed by this sink is being wasted.

On top of this, I would like to argue that there is rarely a case when these sinks are necessary. In the corporate restroom that I most often visit, there are 4 urinals, 4 stalls, and 4 of these sinks (which could each theoretically facilitate 4 people at a time for a grand total of 16 people washing their hands at one time). At most, three of the sinks are being used at a time (with one person at each); therefore, four non-communal sinks could be implemented in this bathroom in place of the 4 communal sinks and there would be less wasted water.

Also, the water coverage for the communal sink is far insufficient in comparison to the typical non-communal sink (as someone must attempt to get soap off of their hands utilizing 6-8 streams the size of mechanical pencil lead refills), the water tends to spray up and get water spots on your pants while you are washing your hands (which can lead to some awkward moments after you leave the bathroom) since the water is shooting at you instead of aiming straight down, and, in the case of our communal sinks, the pedal frequently gets stuck in the “on” position as the equipment has worn over time, so it is not uncommon for these sinks to be stuck spraying when there is no one washing their hands (which, of course, is 100% of the water wasted).

I could see where these sinks could be handy (in very over-crowded conditions like community pools, etc), but this is not the right sink for anything short of such a high-volume venue!!!

Awesome post! I think that “Professionalism” and “Formalization” are all too often confused in today’s corporate world; customers no longer want to just be talked to by companies; they want to have an actual conversation about the products and services that they’re receiving! I recommend taking this one to heart!

No matter how small and insignificant a task or assignment might be or seem once it’s on the path to your career goals you should treat it professionally. Whether your career goal is to own your own business or to move up in your company it should still remain true that you treat events along the way that will directly or indirectly affect your desired outcome in the long run should be approached with focus attention to detail and care must be taken in making sure it is completed or done in a competent manner.

This makes for the development of a focus attitude towards your goals and I have seen it work in my own journey where I spend more time and care in completing tasks that I need to do, whether it’s sending an email communication, organizing my reports, or doing repairs I try not to cut corners too much if…